The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is threatening to block
Woolworths
’ acquisition of a block of land in Sydney’s west as part of a clampdown on creeping acquisitions by the major grocery chains.

ACCC chairman
Rod Sims
said the commission’s preliminary view was that the proposed acquisition was likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the local Glenmore Park market by preventing the entry of a rival supermarket.

Woolworths already owns an existing supermarket in the Glenmore Park area and Aldi is planning to open a store in 2014. The new site would give Woolworths two stores in a market which lacked other suitable supermarket sites.

“We always like at least three players," Mr Sims told The Australian Financial Review. “This is the first time we have said we’ve got competition concerns with what is the acquisition of a site on which they’ll build a supermarket as distinct from an existing supermarket."

It is the third time this year that the ACCC has raised concerns about a proposed acquisition by Woolworths.

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In May, the ACCC flagged concerns about the sale of three Ballarat hardware stores to Woolworths and its joint-venture partner Lowe’s.

Mr Sims appears to be losing patience with the major retailers, who have yet to agree to plans for a new regime to expedite the approval process for creeping acquisitions.

Under the proposal, flagged by Mr Sims in June, Woolworths and
Coles
would provide detailed information upfront about every acquisition in return for a faster approval process.

However, the retailers are worried the process will increase costs and become a platform for the ACCC to block deals, stunting their growth.

Mr Sims said the ACCC would scrutinise creeping acquisitions whether the retailers co-operated or not. “It’s up to them – if they decide they don’t want to go down that path we’re still going to look at all these acquisitions – and it will just take longer," he said.

“We don’t want to wake up in five years time having not taken any interest only to find the market landscape is a lot more concentrated than we would be comfortabe with," he said.